Lara Gillespie, Alice Sharpe, Mia Griffin, Kelly Murphy and Erin Creighton have been selected as a team of five riders that will represent Ireland at the 2024 UEC Track European Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, from January 10th to 14th.
The five riders will compete in the women’s endurance events with the team selection based around the Women’s Team Pursuit Event and Ireland’s qualification campaign for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
The European Championships form a key qualification event before UCI Nations Cup rounds in Adelaide, Hong Kong and Milton this spring.
Ireland currently sit in ninth in women’s team pursuit qualifying, with the top 10 teams at the end of qualification earning a spot in the event as well as a place in the omnium and madison events in Paris.
The team are hoping to build on strong performances in 2023 that saw them break the team pursuit national record multiple times as riders continue to gain experience and make forward strides at the top level.
“At this point in the Olympic qualifying process it’s a small team focused on dialling in their main qualifying route for Paris via the team pursuit,” Iain Dyer, Cycling Ireland high performance director, said.
“Naturally as Olympic events the omnium and madison will take precedence in the bunch racing events, but we won’t pass up the opportunities that a championship presents in the other bunch events with an eye on attaining eligibility for Copenhagen World Championships later next year.”
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